Tankiz

Sayd ad-Din Tankiz ibn Abdullah al-Husami an-Nasiri (died May 1340) was the Viceroy of Syria from 1312 to 1340 under the Bahri Sultanate.

Biography
Tankiz was born to a family of Sunni Muslim Turks, and in 1296 the mamluk sultan of Egypt Lajin purchased Tankiz as a slave. When Lajin was killed in 1299, Tankiz became a bodyguard for his successor an-Nasir Muhammad, and in the early 1300s he became an emir of the Bahri Sultanate's army. He was initially an outsider in the Bahri Sultanate's hierarchy due to his prior loyalty to Lajin, but he was later taken into an-Nasir Muhammad's inner circle due to his loyalty to him, even when he was exiled in Damascus in 1309 and had to fight for his crown back. In August 1312, Tankiz was appointed Viceroy of Syria, and by 1314 he had unprecedented rule over the Levant. In 1315, Tankiz (dressed as a king and having golden armor on his horse) led an army to capture the Mongol Empire's fortress of Malatya in Asia Minor. He succeeded in conquering the city, and he proceeded to invade Lesser Armenia, a Mongol ally. Through budget cuts and taxation, Tankiz managed to fund public works and build up Syria's economy, and he annually visited an-Nasir Muhammad. However, Tankiz became fearful of the sultan after the execution of Baktamur as-Saqi in 1332, and they argued over many issues, such as Tankiz's refusal to release some imprisoned mamluks and his taxation of the Christians of Damascus (which alienated the Byzantine Empire). In 1340, he was arrested and taken to Alexandria, where he was executed.